Marketing; Thoughts and Questions

A Tweet Here, A Tweet There

Recently, for one of my classes this semester, my professor created a Twitter account for the class to interact with. I think this is a great idea, for a few reasons. As Management students, I think it is important that everyone learns how to use Twitter and its possibilities. So many people are judging the platform without even understanding the platform. In addition, using this for classes allows students to easily ask questions and teachers to more easily send out information for the class and any other interesting items.

The only problem I do see with this at the moment is not only relevant for this class but companies using Twitter in general. Because everyone puts out so much information, the feed moves very quickly so a single tweet can be lost very easily. Even if the tweet is incredibly valuable, the only people who will see the tweet will be those looking at their feed at the time it was tweeted.

How can and is this problem resolved?

There is actually a lot of research about when is the best time of day to tweet. Take a look at The Social Media Guide and Predictive Marketing. If you read these, you will notice that it tends to be around 9:00/10:00AM and Noon. And this makes sense. At the beginning of your day, when you first get to work when you are getting comfortable you check to see whats new and then around lunch when you are taking a break and want to check out lunch specials.

Of course, this is assuming that your target audience is working a full time job. As students, for a class Twitter account, it is a little different. I would say that the best times would be in the morning, when we first wake up (around 9:00AM) and in the evening, around 7/8:00PM after dinner and before we start our homework.

At the same time, it is understandable that you will not always be on hand to tweet at these times and that is why tools such as Hootsuite have come in so handy. Hootsuite allows members to schedule Tweets and Facebook posts whenever you want. This way, you don’t need to actually be on to post. This is exactly how companies are able to post at all hours of the day. It makes it easier to actually reach your target market whenever they are on, rather then you having to be awake then to do it. Luckily, the basic service is free, so we can all use it.

Hootsuite has certainly increased productivity! I agree about Google+ , but it seems as though the hype for the platform has slowed down. Do you think it has the chance to grow and even beat Facebook like many people were initially saying?

Actually, I do think it has some advantages over Facebook and could cause the Facebook team some serious problems. Google has a strong base as well (email, apps, mobile) and when they open the door via API’s (ala HootSuite) we will see more.

And yes! That is still the problem but this way you have an even better chance of catching your target. This is why there is consistently new research about how to best use tools such as Twitter. We are still trying to find the best way to reach our target market.